President Obama is working systematically to marginalize the most powerful forces behind the Republican Party, setting loose top White House officials to undermine conservatives in the media, business and lobbying worlds.

With a series of private meetings and public taunts, the White House has targeted the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the biggest-spending pro-business lobbying group in the country; Rush Limbaugh, the country’s most-listened-to conservative commentator; and now, with a new volley of combative rhetoric in recent days, the insurance industry, Wall Street executives and Fox News.
Obama aides are using their powerful White House platform, combined with techniques honed in the 2008 campaign, to cast some of the most powerful adversaries as out of the mainstream and their criticism as unworthy of serious discussion.

Press secretary Robert Gibbs has mocked Limbaugh from the White House press room podium. White House aides limited access to the Chamber and made top adviser Valerie Jarrett available to reporters to disparage the group. Everyone from White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel to White House Communications Director Anita Dunn has piled on Fox News by contending it’s not a legitimate news operation.

That’s an impressive-sounding search-and-destroy mission and it is bound to have some impact, but like Terminators who keep reassembling and coming at you right after you could have sworn you’d blown them to bits, two noteworthy Republicans materialized to fire volleys at the president and his policies.

On Wednesday night, Dick Cheney, accepting a “Keeper of the Flame Award” from the Center for Security Policy, gave a speech that was a essentially a point-by-point attack on everything Obama, from the withdrawal of missiles from Eastern Europe to his record on the issue of the day, Afghanistan. In a speech chock full of characteristically inflammatory rhetoric (“We cannot protect this country by putting politics over security, and turning the guns on our own guys,” was a morning-after favorite), Cheney described the White House as “dithering” on the war.

Well, that did it.

Robert Gibbs, the White House Press secretary countered today: “What Vice President Cheney calls dithering, President Obama calls his solemn responsibility to the men and women in uniform. I think we’ve all seen what happens when somebody doesn’t take that responsibility seriously.”

Gibbs drew much attention today for his snarky responses to Cheney’s speech, giving the heretofore unfathomable impression that someone was picking on Dick Cheney.

The record is clear: Dick Cheney and the Bush administration were incompetent war fighters. They ignored Afghanistan for 7 years with a crude approach to counter-insurgency warfare best illustrated by: 1. Deny it. 2. Ignore it. 3. Bomb it. While our intelligence agencies called the region the greatest threat to America, the Bush White House under-resourced our military efforts, shifted attention to Iraq, and failed to bring to justice the masterminds of September 11.

The only time Cheney and his cabal of foreign policy ‘experts’ have anything to say is when they feel compelled to protect this failed legacy. While President Obama is tasked with cleaning up the considerable mess they left behind, they continue to defend torture or rewrite a legacy of indifference on Afghanistan. Simply put, Mr. Cheney sees history throughout extremely myopic and partisan eyes.

But Clifton B. at Another Black Conservative thinks Cheney is just the man to take Obama to task on Afghanistan:

The main reason why Cheney is so effective against Obama on national security is because Obama is so bad at it. If it weren’t for a complicit media, Obama’s national security policies would have long been brought into question. Obama’s national security policies, like almost all of his other polices, severely lack common sense if you trust in Obama’s stated objectives. Cheney on the other hand deals only in common sense. Thus Cheney’s suggested course of action fits Obama’s stated objectives far better. If Obama wants to have any hope in effectively dealing with Cheney’s criticisms then Obama is going to have to start meaning what he says.

Steve Benen at Political Animal thinks that Cheney has mucho chutzpah for even thinking about taking up the issue of Afghanistan.

It’s hard to know where to start, but I suppose it’s worth noting from the outset that Cheney and the most recent administration left the mess in Afghanistan for President Obama to clean up. Hearing the guy who screwed up tell the Commander in Chief, “Hurry up and mop faster” is more than a little disturbing.

For that matter, Cheney wants to see Obama “do what it takes to win”? That’s a fine idea — too bad Cheney didn’t follow that advice when he was helping run the previous administration. Conditions in Afghanistan were stable and improving when Bush/Cheney decided it was time to launch an unnecessary and costly war in Iraq, making it easier for the Taliban to regroup and go on the offensive.

The White House isn’t sending “signals of indecision”; the White House is doing what Cheney failed to do: come up with a strategic plan for the future of U.S. policy in Afghanistan. In Grown-Up Land, it’s the former vice president who “dithered” his way through eight years in Afghanistan. Taking a few weeks to come up with a coherent plan doesn’t put U.S. troops “in danger”; listening to Dick Cheney puts U.S. troops “in danger.”

The mere re-emergence of Cheney as a public opponent of the president rankles Andrew Sullivan, who writes with obvious outrage at The Daily Dish: “The former vice-president and war criminal again assails the president of the United States because he won an election pledging to reverse the dead-end policies of his discredited and incompetent predecessors.” Sullivan continues:

Cheney is fighting against a narrative that will, in due course, cast him in history as one of the most criminal and incompetent officials in American history. It is logical for him to fight in this way, to lie about his record and to attack a sitting president in the vilest way possible while that president and the country remains at war. It is not logical for anyone else to take him the faintest bit seriously.

Except for this: For a former vice-president to do this in real time, and to use this kind of rhetoric, and play with these kinds of stakes — to warn, in fact, than any future terror attack will be blamed on the president, not al Qaeda, and used as partisan tool to get his own allies in power again to prevent justice being brought to him and his criminal cronies – well, it’s as despicable as the rest of Cheney’s record.

The first thing I always think upon hearing Dick Cheney is, where were these vigorous defenses of Bush administration policy during the Bush administration? Cheney continues to point out the obvious — although the Bush Derangement Syndrome crowd tries to pretend otherwise — that regardless of its many faults, it successfully defended the U.S. from any follow-up terror strikes after 9/11. … Most of the criticism of the Obama administration is well-aimed and effective. But the biggest problem is that it comes from Dick Cheney.

I understand why Cheney feels the need to speak out, given the Obama administration’s ridiculous and continual attempts to blame any problem on Bush. But every time Cheney speaks, he reminds people about the Bush administration, helps keep BDS alive, and gives new life to Obama’s strategy of blaming the past.

Awwwwwww! Poor babies. They relentlessly attacked workers & regular people, started phony wars and completely ruined our economy for all but the very rich. And we are supposed to feel sorry for them? If Obama has really let the dogs out, it’s about time! Our country has been ruined by the right-wing fringe wackos who represent about 1% or citizens. The sooner the dogs make quick work of them, the better.

In attacking the reactionary right, the White House spokespersons were most likely trying to reflect the feelings of their constituents, those of us who put them in office. They are trying hard to convince us that they are not sell-out wimps, but people who truly reflect our will. We are still only partly convinced.

He is so smug. He had “other priorities” when he could have fought in Vietnam. Talk about “troops in danger” – he could have done more to solve the problem of military vehicles that weren’t properly armored when he was VP. The nerve…

I don’t think Cheney hardly mentioned Afghanistan at all during the second term accept to say it was going swimmingly and should not distract us from Iraq, and that what was really needed was a new war of indefinite duration with Iran. It was an interesting crowd last night, right-wing pundits and defense industry lobbiests, all who have have made a considerable fortunes the last 8 years with our indefinite wars and who for the most part have not risked one part of their rear ends for God and Country. As Dick said about Vietnam and his choosing to avoid the one war he had a chance to fight, he and they have other priorities and there lots of folks paid to take those risks.

I can see where Andrew Sullivan gets the moral outrage. I don’t quite see what the other see how Obama has not advanced the interests of the United States the last 9 months compared to where it was at the end of the Bush administration and the Wall Street melt down. That there is no Middle East between Israel and the Arabs and Iran has not laid down its arms within 9 months is failure!! Apparently these folks are not happy unless we are randomly kidnapping people from Muslim countries to torture and finding some place the rain bombs down every other day. To them that is succes.

Watching Libby and Cheney accept those awards was the most surreal moment of my week. What are the republicans thinking? Haven’t they done enough to cause death and war all over the world without publicly rewarding themselves for it.

I have not yet seen a commentator mention the (obviously antiquated) guideline invoked in 2000 that the ex-president (and, I assume, ex-vice president) should refrain from public criticism on policy for the first year of the new administration. Let’s imagine that Al Gore had taken to making televised speeches attacking the Bush/Cheney administration as soon as they backtracked on the Kyoto or proposed new tax cuts for the wealthiest (insert any number of other issues here). The public would have seen that as out of bounds and would have tuned out. Dick Cheney is the face of the Republican opposition because he’s the best they’ve got right now. That leads me to think that the Obama administration is only too happy to keep debating Dick Cheney: they keep winning the battle of public perception, and we’re all reminded that there’s no unifying leader for the Republicans right now.

I’ll give Obama the benefit of the doubt on Afghanistan. He is more likely to stick to a well thought out decision.

I also don’t mind Bush and Co. concentrating on Iraq in their day. That situation has definitely improved.

For my money there hasn’t been much difference between the actions of each administration when it comes to these two wars. Bush was already winding down Iraq. He also would have had to reconsider the Afghan strategy (as he did with Iraq.)

Obama is continuing the Bush strategy in Iraq and getting ready to emulate Bush in Afghanistan. Obama (we!) cannot afford to lose that war. The key issue: define a credible, doable, win.

I believe the media gives airtime to this kind of school yard taunting because they want to distract us from the issue. The white house has been trying very hard to make this be about how many troops to send. It’s not. It’s about REDUCING the number of troops and sharply RAISING the amount of humanitarian and economic aide. People who are working and doing well don’t become suicide bombers. Ignore the puppet show. Stick with the issue.

Cheney and the other war criminals from the failed and damaging debacle that was the Bush presidency continue to bellow the most mendacious tripe. Where was all that testosterone and bellicosity when Cheney, Wolfowitz, Bush, Feith, Perle, et al–and their chief media cheerleaders Beck and Limbaugh–had their chance to fight in wars they supported? Simple. They all chickened out. Much better to get other suckers to fight wars they started and abetted. Too many cocktail parties to attend. “Other priorities”.

The fact that these hypocrites are not put in the stocks gives the lie to the myth of the so-called “liberal media”. Cheney had years to fix the enormous problems he and Bush caused. But he’s unwilling to give the current president more than a few months to clean up his mess. Much easier, once again, to sit on the sidelines and throw stones while others do the hard work.

Congratulations Mr. Cheney on the continuation of such a noble strategy.

Obama must be doing something right for the Right to become so righteous right now.

Perhaps he has blown a little smoke in their faces on the marijuana issue, and it looks like the public option may find itself in the Senate health bill. A small step towards getting the US the basic guaranteed health care that all other modern industrialized nations allow and provide their citizens.

He should start the winding down of the two futile wars, and stop sacrificing US troops and innocent civilians for nebulous undefined goals.

Start bettering America, so its citizens can again be proud of their country for the right reasons.

Dick Cheney is like a slowly fading but periodically reoccurring nightmare. Every time he opens his mouth, I think we should all thank our lucky stars he’s not still sitting in his sinister undisclosed location, imposing his fascist, out of touch, war loving, offensive policies on the rest of us. Cheney is an insult to decent, free-thinking people, and one wonders why he doesn’t just slither back under whatever rock he called home before he came to power.

Cheney was a Nixon protege, and it showed. He adopted the worst characteristics of Tricky Dick: The lying, the conspiratorial paranoia, the unflinching certainty of his own correctness in spite of all evidence to the contrary, and blind and ruthless ambition.

We can only hope that he mellows in his final years. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem likely.

I don’t know about defending America from terrorist attacks after 9/11, but Bush/Cheney sure didn’t defend us from a terrorist attack on 9/11, despite ample warnings that such an attack was imminent. For that alone they should have been impeached. Darth Vader can talk all he wants, he’s still facing a good (and well-deserved) chance of going to jail.

another great article demonstrating the STENOGRAPHIC REPORTING technique.. I hope these types of reporters are paid less than actual reporters..Is it not possible to juxtapose comments by politicians with some FACTS – I know the NYT prints tables, every now and then, on the op-ed page, that just show numbers killed, troops on the ground – whatever – FACTS..
There is not one article that I have seen in any paper that presented Cheney’s comments accompanied by FACTS. Or even something basic, like the background behind the strange institution, new to me, so I am sure to many, where he was speaking..How about telling us about that, reporters..No – go home to your wifes, write that novel..as Steven Colbert said..Your work is done..

Take it from a retired general: “The record is clear: Dick Cheney and the Bush administration were incompetent war fighters,” said Retired General Paul Eaton. Cheney ignored Afghanistan after he began his fruitless folly in Iraq. Cheney’s legacy is pure failure, and no amount of vicious barking will change that.

Almost a century ago, Rudyard Kipling predicted Bush and Cheney in his poem”Epitaphs of the War:”
“If any question why we died,
“Tell them, because our fathers lied.”
Cheney and Bush lied us into the war in Iraq. More than 4,000 Americans and uncounted numbers of Iraqi are dead because of their mendacity and deceit – although Cheney’s Halliburton stock has done well. Take nothing this deceitful man says as motivated by anything but self-interest.

Cheney’s as self-appointed defender of ring-wing lunacy and
Limbaugh’s hot air pronouncements would be as laughable as Laurel & Hardy routines were it not for the fact that there exists a significant number of people who take them seriously. The White House is painting them as the face of the Republican party. As long as Republicans allow them to do so they will not be a viable alternative to the Democrats.

Delusional thinking is wonderful isn’t it? Cifton B.’s ‘common sense’, priceless. Common sense generally is neither, common nor sensical. And David’s silly and obviously devoid of reality statement; ‘given Obama’s ridiculous and continual attmepts to blame any problems on Bush”. I get it; all these messy wars, domestic, foreign and economic problems suddenly materialized in January ”09… that’s the ticket. Idiots one and all. Nice spin.

As for that unindicted war criminal and creator of most of this mess we’re in, well deserved award from the idiots that enabled all this crisis. Excellent, you must be proud.. It appears ex VP Cheney seems to think that the current administration should follow his administration’s policies to the letter. Like it was unfinished business and Obama didn’t get the memo that Dick was still pulling the strings. Doesn’t matter that the vote for Obama was basically a vote against all things Bush/Cheney. Dick your work is done, it was all a monumental failure, you nearly destroyed our country. Now take a reality pill and go home before we throw into prison.,

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The Thread is an in-depth look at how the major news events and controversies of the day are being viewed and debated across the online spectrum. Compiled by Peter Catapano, an editor in The Times’s Opinion section, the Thread is published every Saturday in response to breaking news.